Farm Shop Conference: Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire 10th and 11th June
“This event will inspire farm retail business to step back and think about the strategic way their business runs as well as make them think about the detail, a must attend for any farm shop owner and manager” Sally Jackson, The Pink Pig Farm, pinkpigfarm.co.uk This unique event will run over two days, providing a comprehensive focus on the key aspects of marketing to ensure your farm shop or visitor attraction is successful. Day 1 will include visits to four farm leading farm shops to see real life case studies. Day 2 will include expert speakers providing technical and managerial guidance helping each attendee to implement the lessons when they return to their own business. Cassava Ltd and Smiths Gore have partnered with leading farm shops in each of the areas to ensure that the programme is of the highest quality together with speakers who will provide a lasting impact on everyone who attends. “Our aim is to ensure you leave inspired and equipped with the right information to move your business forward in the future” Judy Randon, Cassava Ltd
Day 1 - Day on Tour We will be visiting 4 farms and horticultural businesses to take an in depth look at how farm retail works for them. You will spend time working with the owners of these businesses to understand the ups and downs they have experienced while developing their business. Each will provide practical ideas on how to attract more customers into their businesses and how to maximise expenditure from each customer. This day will start at 9.30 and aim to finish around 5.30. Hillers Farm Shop: Hillers is a family run business, started over 80 years ago from a thriving farm that grows the best quality fruit for distribution to markets across the country. Hillers has been awarded the Best Rural retailer by the Countryside Alliance in 2010 and the Warwickshire and Worcestershire best Farm Shop of the Year award. www.hillers.co.uk Lower Clopton Farm Shop: Lower Clopton Farm is nestled at the base of Meon Hill just 7 miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon at the gateway to the Cotswolds. A family run business, Richard is the third generation to work this 211 acre farm which produces traditionally farmed beef, lamb and turkey as well as a small amount of arable crops which are mainly used to feed and bed the stock. www.lowerclopton.co.uk Hill Top Farm Shop: In 1999 John set up the farm shop following successful and positive feedback from selling through local Farmers Markets. Seasonality is very important at Hilltop Farm. They stock a wide range of the best British seasonal produce from asparagus to pheasant. Everything they sell is sourced as locally as possible. www.hilltopfarmshop.com Malt Kiln Farm Shop: The farm shop has grown steadily since 1991 and on 30th April 2004 the present purpose built shop was opened by the Mayor of Rugby. On the 1st October 2007 they opened a butchers counter and coffee shop both of which are run as an integral part of the business. Home reared beef and pork in addition to a range of fruit and vegetables make this a fantastic shopping and eating experience . Providence in abundance - come and see for yourself. www.maltkilnfarmshop.co.uk Day 2 - Conference Day A great line up of speakers and industry experts ensuring that the day is packed with information to help you review, re-focus and re-energise your business. The day will be a mixture of presentations and workshop sessions providing you with plenty of time to interact with the speakers. The day will include a focus on the customer experience, promotion and marketing, branding and setting your own and the businesses performance targets. This day will run between 9.30 am and 4.30 pm. Speakers at the conference will include . Susie Emmett: Susie is a creative communicator. Using multimedia skills she works with a wide range of local and international food businesses to use words, images and sound to inspire, inform and influence their customers. Whether in person, on products or online Susie believes every moment matters to connect, impress and promote your brand.
Jonathan Winchester: Jonathan is the founder of Shopper Anonymous and works with some of the most successful farm shops, rural and independent businesses across the UK to improve their standard of customer service. Building a team who are motivated, passionate and empowered is a critical aspect of any forward thinking business. Jonathan will be sharing with you some great tips on developing a truly fantastic team who understand the end goal. Charlie Turnbull - Managing the Margins in Retail, fantastic practical tips and tools to use to keep on top of those figures. Charlie Turnbull owns and runs the famous Turnbulls Delicatessen and Café, grew up on a small farm and is a board member of the Guild of Fine Food. He also has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to managing the figures and believes we should ‘dream about margins’. Charlie will share with us some fantastic tips and tools on how to manage and maximise the margins and will share best practice on managing a merchandising event/campaign Stuart Beare: adding value to a farm shop often involves creating new activities to attract new people and then to keep customers longer. Stuart will highlight how he has managed to attract thousands of new customers to Tulleys Farm and the impact this has had on the profits. Michael Mack: Michael will explore the process of setting personal and business performance indicators that matter. Smiths Gore have worked across most farming and rural businesses to support them to benchmark their performance and then to use this information to achieve improvements in the businesses performance. Chris Burton: Chris has more than twenty years of experience in successfully growing businesses through brands and marketing. Chris will explain how to unleash the power of your brand and sharpen the focus of your marketing. This is not about branding – logos, symbols, sounds and colours. It’s about generating memorable customer experiences every day to create customers who love your business and help you to produce sustained profitable growth “Thank you for a superb conference at Ipswich. Both Jo and I came away feeling like we had been given a shot of an inspiration drug, and it was also fantastic to mutually share our experiences with other delegates. The Farm Shop Retail Sector is pretty challenging at the best of times so it really is vital that conferences such as these are there for us. I know from conversations, everyone I spoke with shared these views” Chris Reeks, La Hogue Farm Foods, Chris attended the 2011 Farm Retail Conference organised and run by Judy Randon which has been the inspiration behind this conference.
book today! Take advantage of the early bird rate and book before 25th May Early bird rate - £120 +VAT Afterwards - £130 + VAT To book please call: Carrie Robbins Hub Co-ordinator Warwickshire Rural Hub CIC Arthur Rank Centre Stoneleigh Park Warwickshire CV8 2LG
Michael Mack Smiths Gore Hyperion House The Oaks Office Fordham Road Newmarket CB8 7XN
t 024 76 858 242 carrie@ruralhub.org.uk
t 01638 666444 newmarket@smithsgore.co.uk
Accomodation Local Accommodation has been organised at Stoneleigh Lodge. Single rooms at £55 Doubles at £60 To book a room please telephone 024 7669 0123 and quote ‘Farm Retail Event’
This project has been supported through the Rural Development Programme for England , which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union